Reunions and Wolf Cubs
by Magemaster
Summary: Finding a way home is often a long road filled with pitfalls and side quests that no one ever expects. Rose Tyler never though that she would have to lose everything in order to reunite with the Doctor, but she also didn't expect to a stray TARDIS or to take up the Doctor's mantle in a different universe either.
1. Chapter 1

Reunions and Wolf Cubs

Chapter 1

I do not own Doctor Who!

* * *

… _metal glinted in the light, sharp needles filled with whatever chemical they were going to shove into her veins this time…_

… _pain, so much pain flooding her system, awakening power that had lain dormant inside her…_

… _her head aching, feeling as if it were going to explode in a gory mess as her brain expanded inside it, swirling with information and empty space…_

… _a voice, calling her and drawing her in, so familiar yet completely different at the same time…_

… _running as far and as fast as she could without a hand to hold, without either of her Doctors by her side…_

… _a wolf howling all around her, calling for her mate, her best friend, her mother, her friends lost across the void in another world…_

 _HELP! PLEASE HELP!_

Rose Tyler lurched awake, tumbling from her bed aboard her ship. She was clammy and shaky, just as she always was when her nightmares brought up old, fragmented memories. The last bit was different from what was normal. She usually woke up when Bad Wolf howled.

Her ship, her TARDIS, hummed in concern. She patted the nearest wall.

"It's alright my girl, I'm okay." It was only a small lie. "Has someone sent out a distress call? That wasn't me in that last bit."

The TARDIS continued to hum, alerting Rose to what was going on. Rose made her way to the consul room, doing her best not to dwell on her memories.

The hallway from her room to the main room was covered in picture frames hanging from the walls. They were from a life she had been forgotten from. She might have pictures, but her little brother didn't even know he had a big sister. Mickey had been lost in a dimension jump attempt shortly before they'd taken her.

An underground part of Torchwood London had taken it upon themselves to make her a science experiment. They'd wiped her from an existence she'd just barely established. They'd also had a wreaked, badly damaged TARDIS near where they had kept her. More fools they, the Torchwood she had worked for. Six months was not long at all, but it was more than enough time for her and the TARDIS to form a connection and bring Bad Wolf into being once again.

They'd taken her because of something they had found in one of the blood tests she'd had done since being trapped in Pete's universe. Rose had become some sort of Gallifreyan/TARDIS hybrid and there was no one to help her understand the changes. The only reason she knew what she had become was because of the TARDIS she was now the pilot of. The ship had sensed her pain and come to her aid. They had escaped together, nearly died in the attempt but death was the better option over recapture.

It had been chaotic, the escape. They had barely made it, and stopping in Cardiff to refuel had nearly gotten them caught again. Six months wasn't entirely accurate, but saying the exact amount of time was something she rarely acknowledged. The cold anger that infused her soul was just as terrifying as the actual terror of the experiments and being forgotten.

"Where are we headed mi'girl?" Rose enjoyed how the inside of her TARDIS both did and didn't look like the Doctor's. The coral was welcoming and familiar, but she enjoyed having big screen monitors and an understandable consul. Not that anyone else would have been able to understand it. In order to completely rescue and heal each other, the two were deeply connected to the point where losing one might very well kill the other. It was a terrifying thought but one Rose had decided was worth it.

A blip appeared on the map screen, the image zooming in until there was a clear image of a star system. She frowned, something tickling at the back of her mind. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't think of why.

"Dracarious, fourth planet in the Fantanic star system in the Mesofore galaxy…what or who is there that could send such a signal?" Rose mused to herself aloud. The thought that she should find a companion went across her mind again but she, like always, pushed it aside.

Abandoned and forgotten, she didn't want to risk her hearts again. She tried to tell herself that this, the going around the universe and helping wherever she could, was enough. Simply traveling was enough. It was lonely, beyond lonely, but there was nothing else for her. She had no way to get home (and she meant her universe, not Earth), no way to return to the one person who held the missing pieces, and no family. Decades had passed for her, who knew with the Doctor? Even with the ability to go back in time, she'd still lived those years. Going back wouldn't change it.

The consul vibrated. Rose picked up the physic paper (which she had found on one of the many planets she'd visited) she had there. It was more of the same, cries for help. No further information, just the same 'help, please help'. The same message over and over again…

A question, however, was if it was a single person or something else. What did they need help with?

She was speaking out loud, registering the sounds her ship made as she did so. Being part TARDIS allowed her a deeper connection than even a Time Lord could imagine, but it still wasn't an actual conversation. Oh, sometimes there were distinct words but that was rare and usually only when Rose was at her lowest. It took an astounding amount of power for the TARDIS to communicate in something as complicatedly simplistic as mere words.

Information on Dracarious filled the screen. Rose wondered how this had never come to her attention before. Gladiator battles were nothing new to her. She'd seen some interesting ones when she and the Doctor had gone to New Rome. Several planets had such arenas and traditions, many where the participants were trained from childhood to partake or even slaves. The latter sat badly with her, and it wouldn't be the first time she'd landed just when a rebellion broke loose to change things.

Dracarious was one of those, but the images she was seeing weren't just of children being raised to be warriors for both battle and entertainment but of them actually fighting in the arena. Now, if free will was involved there wasn't anything she could do about it. People had to be able to make their own choices no matter her or anyone else's opinion on it.

She needed more information, and there was at least one person who didn't want to be there.

* * *

The entire planet of Dracarious was an arena, or close to it. What wasn't a part of a stadium was a training camp, and what space wasn't set aside for the planet wide sport were open air markets, hotels, and businesses. Further away from these centers were farmlands and homesteads apparently, but it seemed to Rose that most of the humanoid life was concentrated in and around the arenas.

Everything looked disturbingly normal and in place. There was nothing in the air to suggest rebellion was coming. If anything, it seemed as if the only disturbing thing were two very different sets of posters.

The first was calling for action to stop the underground fighting rings. It seemed to take precedence as everyone Rose asked about it had nothing good to say on the subject. Many people had stories about raids done by the local police. Some children had been returned to their families, others had been turned over to the local training camps because they had no families or at least none willing to claim them, and a few had been killed because it had driven them mad. It wasn't only children, but as was typical of many species it was the children that had the most impact.

It was the second, smaller one that seemed to justify her sense of unease. For one, there was a limited perception filter around it. Scanning it told her that only those who either already knew or were looking for it could see them. The poster itself looked innocent enough, announcing dates for fights in a place called the Reaper's Ring.

She had shuddered at the name. Reapers were something that she had no wish to ever encounter again. Once was more than enough.

Another odd thing about the poster was that the date, time, and place continually changed. It was in moments like these that she wished the Doctor was with her. He would know what it was.

Writing down the times from the poster on the little notebook she carried, she turned to make her way to the center market. Something else was going on here and she was going to figure it out.


	2. Chapter 2

Reunions and Wolf Cubs

Chapter 2

I do not own Doctor Who!

* * *

"Gotta be careful, they'll be back soon." She raised her head, staring in confusion at the small girl who was now beside her.

"Who're you?" she slurred. Her head hurt and she'd been strapped to this table almost since the moment her ship had crashed landed on this stupid planet in this very wrong universe. She was never going to find her Dad now.

"Don't have a name," the child answered, "only the blooded ones get named if they don't go mad first." She paused in her efforts to free the small blonde. "Do you have a name?"

"Jenny, my Dad's friend named me Jenny." She shivered. What had these people done to her? Her body didn't feel right.

"You're special like me," the little girl said, "they've been hurting you like they hurt me and soon they'll be sending you to the ring."

"Special how, and what ring?"

 _You hear things in your head,_ the girl thought in the way of an answer. _The training ring, where they send all of us. We're templates, or I am._

Head throbbing, Jenny didn't have the energy to use her developing telepathy. "What did they do to me?" She even sounded wrong, her voice was different.

"They made you look like your real age," the girl whispered, finally freeing Jenny's wrists. "Help is coming, that's what my dreams sing."

Jenny was confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I dream things that haven't happened, that might happen, sometimes that have already happened. That's why they hurt me, to find out how I do it so they can change the others. They want to make the perfect fighter."

"How do you know so much?" Jenny eyed the girl. She was only a little bit taller and, possibly, only a little bit older. She was five and a half, more or less, although she should look closer to twenty. The little girl couldn't be more than four or five based on size alone.

"Because I know what they're thinking, sometimes I can hide before they hurt me or send me to the ring." She was breathing hard and rubbing at her chest as if it hurt, almost as if she were relearning how to breathe properly.

That certainly explained how and why she could speak so well. Jenny had been born, so to speak, as an adult with all that information already installed. She opened her mouth to ask another question when the girl froze and whimpered.

That was all Jenny needed to be up and trying to find a way out of the cell. Barring that, at least find a place where two small children could hide from whoever was coming. They had just gotten under cover when their time was up.

Four fully grown men wearing leather trousers and jerkins with heavy boots on their feet entered the room. A fifth man, thinner than the others and wearing a long lab coat (or this world's equivalent at least), entered behind them and flicked the lights on.

"I told you to use the molecular chains you idiots!" He yelled at them upon noticing the empty table. "Search the cell, find her now! I'll not have another template running around thinking it has free will."

"Certainly Struan," one of the men replied, looking bored. "And which men should I send after your first failure, again? You're experiments are leading us nowhere."

"My experiments are almost complete Dayaks!" Struan snapped. "That girl was pure Time Lord, the perfect specimen for my work. The last remnant of a dead species and your men's incompetence has once again resulted in my failure."

Jenny bit her lip hard to keep herself from crying out. There wasn't a Doctor in this universe? No Time Lords at all? Is this what her Dad felt like, knowing he was alone in the universe? Is that why he traveled with people like Martha and Donna?

 _We're going to have to run, and run as fast as we can. They're going to find us!_

The girl's warning came too late however as one of the men found them. He snagged their collars, dragging them up to dangle from his huge fists. The girl dangled, still struggling to breathe while Jenny's respiratory bypass kicked in. Jenny tried to escape the man's hold, but he simply shook her until she stopped.

"Put the blonde on the table, send the template to the training ring and see if beating it will make it more pliable." Struan ordered.

"No, take them both to the ring. See how the little freaks handle live training." Dayaks said, his man obeying him. "As for you Struan, use what you already have. Our employer requires fighters for his games, not science experiments." He smiled darkly. "In fact, place them with the beast. If they lose, at least they will be more useful in death than they were in life."

They were taken to a crudely made ring where some kind of animal was chained up. Jenny didn't recognize it, but the other girl knew it by at least its reputation.

"Get out before it kills you," they were told before being tossed into the ring.

* * *

A week so far and she had little to show for it. The message still came, so at least the one who needed help was still alive. Rose arrived at the last location, irritated at the dead ends she'd found so far. She'd left clues in her wake; most justice systems in this universe knew what to make of the words Bad Wolf showing up. She hoped that whatever the authorities found here could be used to track the rest of the rings down on at least this planet.

Children were a soft spot she and the Doctor shared. Someone having children, barely trained, scared, sometimes even children driven mad fighting for their lives for entertainment was sick on a level Rose had never encountered. Daleks might be hate personified, but they'd been created that way. The people doing this had chosen to do this. That, in Rose's opinion, made them worse than the Daleks. This wasn't for survival, like Daleks using humans to engineer or clone more Daleks. No, the people doing this did it for _entertainment_. Both were wrong, but one at least was understandable if still unforgivable. Not that a Dalek would want or even care about forgiveness, but that was beside the point. Faced with human and humanoids like this, and Rose could almost begin to forgive the Daleks some of their lesser evils.

The newest warehouse looked just as deserted as the others. This place felt different however. Scanning for life forms using her sonic screwdriver, it pointed her downwards. It looked as if they took the term 'underground fighting ring' literally in this location.

Sounds registered first, children screaming and a beast's roaring. Rose could hear men cheering, shouting, and judging what they were watching. Anger welled up inside her as she got closer.

This wasn't training, or not just training as she caught sight of a second ring where more children were being forced through drills in sword work and hand to hand. She used 'forced' because willing students didn't have overseers wielding whips to 'encourage' them to learn and punishing them if they fell down. It was the first ring, however, that drew her attention.

Two girls, a blonde and a brunette about five or six based on size, were trying to avoid the claws and teeth of the creature in the ring with them. The creature itself looked like some kind of bear/lion hybrid with antlers and a long spiked tail. Both girls were wounded and tiring quickly.

It tore at Rose's hearts to see this just as it angered her. The strangest thing, however, was the draw she felt to the two girls. She could hear the TARDIS practically _singing_ as it viewed them through her eyes. Something about these girls was special, and it was up to Rose to save them.

Looking around, Rose grinned. A fighters training facility, and it was perfectly set up for gymnastics. She used that to her advantage (and thanked Jack in her mind for the few play sword fights they had engaged in using foam blades he'd found somewhere on the TARDIS) to get into the ring.

She didn't want to kill the beast. The poor creature was in pain, angry and scared as well as hungry. Maddened as it was, it might even be a kindness to put it down. Not that she had much of a choice in the end as it practically impaled itself on the long blade she'd picked up.

"I'm sorry," she told it softly.

It groaned and startled her when she felt it brush against her mind. No wonder she had been able to feel its pain. He was empathic with a little bit of telepathy, intelligent enough to agree to be in a fighter's ring willingly for sport but not the torture he had endured here. His kind never took part in fights to the death, just roughhousing because they found it to be a fun pastime to share with their humanoid brethren. He was thanking her for ending his pain.

Standing, bloody blade still in hand, she turned to look at the shocked faces around her.

"How did you get in here?" One man demanded. "Seize her, and get those little freaks back to their cages!"

"No, you are all going to line up against that wall," she pointed with her sword, "and wait for the authorities to collect you. As for the children, you will release them to me and allow us to leave."

"And why would we do that?" The man who had spoken before spoke again. "You're one woman, against all of us."

Rose chuckled. "I'm giving you a chance, but only one. This ends now, today. You'll not be turning any more children into entertainment for your sick games."

She'd done her research. This sort of thing was abhorrent to the people on this planet. Children could be trained, sometimes even from birth, for the rings but they never fought until they became of age to give consent and show they understood what they would be doing. Here, that meant fifteen years old. Not a single child in this place could be older than ten. Many of them already bore scars that only came from fighting and killing.

Rose had long ago given up trying to understand why she knew things she had no idea how she knew. She just chalked it up to her new biology and what the Torchwood scientists had done to her.

The men laughed, clearly thinking she was kidding. Even with blood on her, bloody sword in hand, they thought she was a joke.

She smiled, raised her hand, and snapped her fingers. Silently, since she didn't leave the brakes on, her TARDIS (out of nostalgia she had it disguised as a Police Box although it was red instead of blue) materialized and began to beep.

"You have three minutes until Lady Sandor arrives with her men," Rose told them, "I suggest you make this easy on yourselves and do as I suggested." At that moment an incredibly tall woman dressed in battle armor carrying an unsheathed sword burst into the room followed by more men and women dressed much the same way. "I lied." Rose ended with a shrug.

 _Now, who sent for my help?_ She sent softly, more wondering to herself than anything else and not expecting a reply. She felt a tug on her pants and she looked down to find the two girls she had rescued.

"You really came to help," the dark haired girl whispered softly, staring up at Rose in complete and utter awe.

Rose knelt down so she was on the same level as the girl. "Of course I did sweetheart, it's what I do."

"Your ship sings. I hear it in my dreams." The little girl continued.

"That's a TARDIS," the blonde little girl said, staring at the ship, "only it's not the same color as Dad's. He said his was blue, a big blue box." Her lip was trembling, a reaction she had never had to something before.

"Yes it does, and yes it is," Rose stared at the little blonde. She could see it, the girl did look like her Doctor.

How was that possible? Gallifrey was little more than a myth here. No Daleks had survived or appeared from the void, thankfully, and they weren't missed by her. Time Lords were a legend; one Rose had been weaving herself into for the last decade or so.

"Could you take me home?" She asked. "I want my Dad, even if he thinks I died before I want to find him and Donna and travel with them like I was supposed to." Jenny was as close to tears as she'd ever been right now. "This isn't my world and I want to go _home_!"

"Shh," Rose gathered the girl into her arms. "I don't know how to take you home little one, I can't get back either."

"Can I come to? I don't want to stay here, they'll just send me off somewhere and I don't want to be alone." The little brunette girl, one who had never been hugged or given a kind word, desperately wanted to go with this shining woman and her magic box.

Rose, for a brief moment, hesitated. These were children, but they needed her. The both of them could hear the TARDIS and the ship could hear them. She wanted them along.

"Yes, but I need your names first."

"Jenny," the girl in her arms replied, "she doesn't have a name." She didn't know, or understand entirely why, but she trusted this woman.

That hurt Rose's hearts. Even the Doctor had a name although no one but he knew it. "Do you want a name?"

The little girl nodded, taking Rose's offered hand. Rose did more than that. She stood up, holding both girls in her arms.

"Talia, Tally for short. Do you like that?" Rose suggested. Jenny's eyes were bright blue while Talia's were a pale green. Jenny's she recognized from her first Doctor, and something within Talia's reminded her of both versions she had known. For a brief moment she entertained the thought that they were her daughters, hers and the Doctor's. A moment was all it took for it to be cemented in her hearts.

The newly named Tally nodded, a wide smile brightening her face. "Tally and Jenny Tyler, that's us now!"

Rose found herself smiling in return. "Yes, I believe it is."

She got the distinct impression of _My Wolf, My Cubs_ from her ship.

It looked as if she had companions after all.

* * *

Once inside the TARDIS, Rose had more to do than even she would have thought. Talia was having trouble breathing and Jenny had injuries that weren't healing. She took them to the infirmary, but didn't know, exactly, what to do. She'd mastered basic (and some not so basic) first aid, but the girls needed more than just that.

Thankfully, her ship was well versed in what was within her walls and could show Rose what she needed to know. She also had nanogenes, calibrated for Gallifreyan individuals. Rose had, to herself anyway, theorized that this particular TARDIS had either been meant as a colonization or refugee ship by the original owners. Her ship wouldn't say and she supposed it didn't really matter. Rose was just grateful to have the ship herself, and she knew the feeling was mutual.

"This won't hurt," she told them, "at least it shouldn't."

Jenny sat on the bed stoically, determined to be brave and strong.

Talia fidgeted, uncertain on what Rose was going to do.

Both girls were delighted by the shimmering golden light the activated nanogenes produced. While it wasn't meant to do so, both girls lost consciousness as the tiny robots went to work. Only the calm coming from her ship kept Rose from stopping the mechanical healers.

"I hope you know what you're doing," she told her ship, eyeing the readouts. She received her ship's equivalent of a snort. "I'll leave you to it then, I have files to destroy."

Jack had once told her, and the Doctor had agreed, that leaving biological matter behind in some places was both dangerous and often times outright stupid. It couldn't be helped sometimes, but when it could it should be done. So, she needed to get rid of anything these people had on the two girls.

It wasn't going to be a pleasant task.

* * *

Jenny found her new size frustrating. What made it worse was that there was nothing to be done about it. No, she had to wait and _grow up_ the normal way. Her Dad was never going to recognize her like this! That is, if they ever discovered a way back home. Despite that, she was settling in and adjusting.

Tally was adjusting to living in a sentient space ship remarkably well. Clean, healthy, and safe for the first time she could remember, she was becoming a very happy child. Often, Rose would find her curled up with her blanket beneath the TARDIS consul just staring at nothing. Tally could talk with the ship just as she could with Jenny and Rose, easier sometimes. If not for the ship, she might very well have gone mad from hearing voices in her head whenever they left the ship.

New to being telepathic herself, Rose could only teach them so much. Luckily for them, this TARDIS had a full library (including the manual) still intact. Torchwood hadn't been able to cannibalize her as they had wanted. The only reason she'd remained where she'd been was because that was where she felt she needed to be. Rescuing Rose, she was slowly revealing or outright rebuilding her array of rooms (such as living quarters, kitchen, media viewing rooms, ect.).

It took four days for Rose to get their stories from them after they were out of the infirmary. Tally's was rather short. She'd never known anything but the Reaper's Ring and Struan's laboratory and cages. He had always called her the 'template' for his experiments in creating a perfect fighter. Jenny's was much longer and far more complicated with a few holes in it from when she'd crossed into this universe through a crack of some kind.

It was thanks to the TARDIS that Rose was able to stabilize them from whatever the scientist had done. Both girls were, for all intents, time tots (Rose recalled that that was what the Doctor had called himself as a child). She'd also been able to discover how old they physically were. Jenny was seven, which she decided was better than being five. Tally, who had no idea when she'd been born, was six. Both were small for their ages and only time would tell if they would remain that way.

"So where are we going now Mum?" Jenny asked. She'd decided that if she was going to call the Doctor Dad, then the woman who had rescued her could and would be her mother. Tally followed suite. It was simply something that felt _right_ to them, as if that was the way it was meant to be. The actual logistics of such a decision never occurred to either of them.

The young telepathic seer had very quickly decided what everyone's roles were in their little family. Rose was her mother, Jenny was her big sister, and if the Doctor would allow it he would be as much her father as he was Jenny's. Rose said nothing against this notion, although she was going to fully enjoy seeing his face when these two girls called him dad. Having them made her more determined than ever to find a way home.

"I don't know, where would you like to go?" Rose wanted some place quiet. However, she couldn't just keep them hovering in the Vortex forever. They'd all go stir-crazy before long.

"Somewhere with apple grass," Jenny decided, "and bananas." She'd been to a few planets with the appealing plant and had inherited (unknown to her until Rose mentioned it) her father's love of the fruit.

"Pears," Tally added in, "and open sky."

"Alright," Rose set the coordinates. "To our first adventure."


	3. Chapter 3

Reunions and Wolf Cubs

Chapter 3

I do not own Doctor Who!

* * *

Sixty planets, dozens of different times, three birthdays, and a year later they returned to Earth just long enough to refuel on the rift there. Rose was jumpy, not trusting Torchwood to stay away. It wasn't just herself now and she would die before her former employers got their hands on her daughters.

"Mum, what if we used the rift to get home?" Jenny, now eight years old and barely any taller, asked. She was spinning in her chair, bored. Neither her mother nor the TARDIS was letting them outside.

"I thought of that," Rose admitted, "back before Torchwood, but it's not stable. We'd just as likely end up on some random planet with no way back as we would in Cardiff in our home universe." It was a weak point in time and space, but using it was dangerous in any circumstance.

"Something's wrong," Tally, seven years old and growing taller every day (or so it seemed to her family), was staring at nothing. Or rather, what she was seeing wasn't visible to anyone else. Like Jenny and even Rose (to an extent) could see timelines, Tally saw events (sometimes from every angle possible).

"Tally, what is it?" Rose went to the girl and picked her up, cradling her. Some of the girl's visions were utterly terrifying and sent her into hysterics. She always needed to be held then.

"The stars are going away…like they never were." She shivered. "Shiny metal pepper shakers with lasers, planets in the sky that don't belong. It doesn't make sense!"

"It's okay, we'll figure it out." Rose assured her. "mi'girl, unlock the doors. We need to look outside." Rose didn't know how much they would see in the center of the city, but they should be able to see something.

Jenny opened the door with caution, peeking out and looking around. The square they were in was empty and dark. The perception filter around the ship would hide them so long as they stayed close and remained still.

Rose pulled the door open completely and stepped out. Jenny took her free hand just in case they needed to run.

"See if you can find the bears and Orion," she told them, looking herself. While many of the constellations were different here, some were the same. Those were the ones she always searched for and kept close to her heart.

"Mum, I can't find Ursa Major." Jenny said softly. She'd found the other two quickly, but no matter where she looked she could not find the other.

"Back inside," Rose ordered, seeing the same thing her daughters were.

She moved the TARDIS deep into the countryside. Outside they went and looked up again. It was the same. Tally went back inside and retrieved the star maps just in case they were wrong and it was simply the wrong time of year.

It wasn't. The stars were gone, and so were several others. How had this happened? _Why_ was it happening? Rose could think of only one life form that matched Tally's description, but they didn't exist in this universe.

"What are we going to do?" Jenny broke their stunned silence as they watched a star wink out as if someone had just flipped a switch.

"Whatever it is, I don't think it's happening here." Rose held them closer to her. If the stars were going out, people could be next. She would die before letting that happen to her girls, and she would go to the ends of the universe to get them back. They were _hers_ as much as she was theirs. She had already lost one family. She wasn't going to lose another.

"We're going home, aren't we?" Tally asked, still staring at the sky. "The walls are thinning, breaking up. The bees are going away, even here."

"What do bees have to do with anything?" Out of everything her sister had just said, that was the oddest to Jenny.

"Bees?" Rose frowned, a memory tickling the back of her mind. Bees! Not all the bees on Earth were actually of Earth, the Doctor had told her once when she had asked why certain planets had the same insects.

She explained this to the girls as they returned to the ship. She doubted whatever it was that was going on was happening here in this world. No, parts of this world were disappearing.

"mi'girl, scan for any missing or currently non-existing planets that we have files for." Rose called out. "Tally, Jenny, get ready for bed. Nothing's going to happen until morning."

Grumbling, they did as they were told. It was no use trying to stay awake no matter how much they may want to. Rose was determined to raise them as normally as possible when they weren't running for their lives, to give them that little bit of stability. Even if they didn't require as much sleep as human children their age, they would get at least a few hours every night.

She came and tucked them in, reading them a chapter from _The Secret Garden_ before turning off the lights. The TARDIS hummed in their heads, a lullaby they had grown accustomed to. Despite the day, it wasn't long before they were asleep.

Rose watched them for a few moments. If this went right, then soon they would be home and, undoubtedly, in the middle of trouble. It wasn't going to be easy, but she had to believe that there was at least a good ending to be had.

 _Everybody lives Rose! Just this once, everybody lives._ Her Doctor had told her that once, right before Jack joined them. It couldn't mean that it only happened once. After all, she was meant to die in battle and she still lived.

Most of her innocence was gone and she was no longer a child, that part of her _had_ died, but she was still alive. She planned on being alive for a very long time. She was determined to find the Doctor and spend that time with him.

Even if she had to slap him to get him thinking straight instead of wallowing in self-sacrificing guilt, she was going to be with him. She had a promise to keep.

* * *

Tally sat in her jump seat, tightening the straps around her. Jenny was doing the same beside her. Both girls were watching their mother, concerned about what they were going to be doing. Jenny understood the mechanics of what Rose was going to do; she just wished she could help. Tally knew what was going to happen, that's why she was making certain she and her sister were going to be mostly stationary.

It was going to be an incredibly bumpy ride.

"Ready girls?" Rose set the final controls and locked them in place. It had taken weeks to get the calculations in place and to find the right point on the rift. They had a single shot at this, so if they failed they'd never get another one.

They wouldn't be around to try again. While not her own, the girls were far too much like her that even if she did have a place to leave them they would just follow her. Even if she did have such a place, as she wasn't coming back she also wasn't going to leave them behind. So she was risking all their lives for this chance.

"We're ready," Jenny took Tally's hand.

"Allons-y!" They shouted together as Rose flipped the last lever.

The TARDIS began to shake and lurch side-to-side, clearly unhappy with doing this sort of travel. Sparks began to fly as the lights went out.

Something was wrong. There was something sending the TARDIS elsewhere.

Rose flew around the consul, half doing what she felt was right and the rest doing what her ship wanted and needed her to do. In a moment that felt both stretched and compressed, everything settled.

Grunting as she got back to her feet from where she'd fallen, Rose dusted herself off.

"Girls? Are you alright?"

Jenny groaned, "I'm 'kay Mum, just dizzy."

"I think I'm going to be sick," Tally muttered, fumbling with the straps holding her to her seat.

"I've got you," Jenny had already escaped from the confines of her seat. "Told you eating all that jam was going to make you sick."

"But it tastes so good! I like jam." Tally retorted with a pout. "Mum? Where did Mum go?"

"Right here," Rose reappeared, helping them back to their feet. "We're not quite there yet, and she's going to be phasing in and out for a bit."

"Someone's trying to change things," Tally muttered.

"I know, and we're too early in this timeline. Jenny hasn't been born yet," Rose told them.

She'd left the TARDIS to take a quick look around. Instead, she'd met with a scene of emergency vehicles and a red-head asking her to tell another woman where the keys would be. Rose knew the person's face only because Jenny had drawn her several times.

"Donna just joined the Doctor," she informed them when she came back inside, "so we've got a bit of a wait."

"Longer than that," Tally had gone blank faced again. "The Trickster wants to play, to see a world where the Doctor isn't there to save it. The creature that isn't there, Donna's got to die to fix it, but she's not gonna die for long because it won't actually happen. The mad Seer is turning things to his whim. A child of time will die."

"Okay Tally, come out of it, that's enough!" Rose shook her youngest, breaking the girl's trance. "Jenny, tissue." Rose wiped blood from Tally's nose. "Talia Jacqueline Tyler, what have I told you about forcing yourself to see more?"

"Don't do it," Tally replied as she always did, "Mummy, I don't feel so good."

"Of course not," Rose wrapped the girl in her arms. "Please stop scaring us like that." One day, Rose was deeply afraid that her daughter would _not_ snap out of one of her visions and be either trapped inside it or brain dead.

"I'll try," she promised, voice small. "Jenny?"

"Right here you daft fool," the smaller blonde told her sister. "You've got to be careful; we don't want to lose you. We love you." She hugged the other girl tightly.

"Love you too," Tally whispered, settling between them. She knew how dangerous delving into her visions was, but a year of love against a life of abuse meant that more often than not that the instinct to do things her own way won.

"Alright, so the ship is going to run a scan of this Earth's history for the next several years both back and forward. We'll figure it, don't worry."

"We're going to be stuck in the TARDIS for a while, aren't we?" Jenny said with dismay. She loved the ship, but she also loved the running.

"We all are, because I'm not sending either of you into unknown danger on purpose." Rose told them. "Don't worry, after this is all over we'll go somewhere and drive the Doctor crazy with domestics, yea?"

That got the reaction she wanted as both girls giggled. Rose kept her fears too herself, tightly locked away where not even Tally could reach them.

Neither of her daughters was going to die, even if she had to reawaken Bad Wolf to ensure it. It never occurred to Rose that it could mean anyone else.


	4. Chapter 4

Reunions and Wolf Cubs

Chapter 4

I do not own Doctor Who!

* * *

Hopscotching thru time was exhausting, especially when said activity involved a parallel universe centered around one person. After each jump, both Rose and the TARDIS were exhausted. Hanging in the Vortex kept them from being a part of the universe, but it was wearing on all of them.

Tally's visions were getting stronger and more frequent as the day approached. It was up to her to navigate them to where they needed to be. Jenny's job was making certain they had everything they needed once the time came. Both girls hated being left behind, but obeyed. Jenny did so because she understood the importance of not interfering too much in events. Tally was simply too exhausted from visions and navigating to argue. Even the TARDIS was tired, since moving thru the parallel world was hard and unsettling work.

The day finally came when the world righted itself. Rose settled her ship on the Rift in Cardiff. The girls were happily running around nearby, ecstatic to be outside once again. Rose stood watching them, smile on her face.

"You know, the last time someone stole the Doctor's ship we had a year that didn't happen."

Rose spun around at both the voice and the sound of a cocking gun. Her eyes widened in shock at the man standing there.

" _Jack?_ " She said in disbelief.

" _Rose?_ " Jack gaped at her. His two remaining teammates looked between the two.

"You know her Jack?" Ianto wondered if he should be jealous.

He got his answer as the blonde woman threw herself at his boyfriend. She was hugging him tightly and ignoring the guns.

"You're alive! How are you alive?" Rose was babbling, she knew that, but one of her best friends was alive. Not only that, but he knew who she was.

"Long story," Jack replied, disengaging his weapon and returning her hug. "I thought you were trapped in a parallel universe?"

"I was, but I found a way back. That isn't the Doctor's TARDIS, it's mine." She explained. "Oh! You need to meet the girls!"

"Girls?" Jack wiggled his eyebrows, smiling more when Rose slapped his shoulder.

"My daughters, so no trying to corrupt them." She told him.

"Daughters?" Jack was lost. Had Rose found someone else? He'd never pegged her to giving up the Doctor.

"I adopted them," she explained, "are you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Right, this is Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper," Jack introduced them, "they're my team."

"Team for what?" Rose asked, waving the girls over.

"Torchwood," he answered.

Rose spun away from him. "You work for _Torchwood_?"

"We _are_ Torchwood, just us." Gwen told her, wondering why the woman was suddenly so afraid of them. Not just afraid, but angry.

"What's wrong Rose?" Jack had never seen her look afraid; certainly she'd never been scared of him. It hurt to see that look on someone he cared so much about.

"Mum, what's wrong?" Jenny took one hand while Tally took the other. "Who're they? Why do they have guns?" She glared at Jack. "And why is _he_ a fixed point?"

"Nothing, just had a shock." Rose assured them. "Let's just say that the Torchwood in Pete's World and I didn't get along very well." She told Jack. Rose figured that he knew enough about the Torchwood _here_ to figure out why she didn't trust this version any more than the one she had briefly worked for.

"We're not like that Rose, I promise you." Jack told her firmly. He had a suspicion on why she was so wary now. The original Torchwood had many unsavory factions that liked their 'experiments'. He'd obliterated most of those, mostly because he'd been at the receiving end of them at one point or another.

"I trust you Jack, and I'm sorry. It's my fault, isn't it, that you can't die?" Rose asked him, saddened at the thought of what she'd done to her friend. She hadn't registered it at first, but now that Jenny had mentioned it she could feel it. That feeling came with the slight glimmer of gold at the edges of her vision she had come to associate with Bad Wolf.

"Yea, but I don't blame you. It's come in handy a time or two." Jack joked even as Gwen and Ianto groaned.

"He's only died how many times since I've joined?" Gwen asked her friend.

"Dozens, at least," Ianto answered, holstering his weapon. "Jack, are you going to return the favor?"

"Right, this is Rose Tyler. She's one of the Doctor's companions." Jack explained.

"And these are Jenny and Tally, my daughters." Rose explained. "Girls, this is your Uncle Jack, you remember me telling you stories about him?"

"Yea," Tally nodded, hiding behind Rose in a sudden bout of shyness. "Hi."

"Did you really save Mum from a barrage balloon?" Jenny asked, not the least bit shy. Jack bothered her a little bit because he was a fixed point, but if Rose wasn't bothered by it then she wouldn't be either.

"I did indeed, although she was unimpressed at the time." Jack replied. The girls were adorable, and he knew his team was already attached. "Would you like to come back to the Hub with us, have dinner and see what we do? We've only got a weevil in one of the cells at the moment, but she's pretty sedate most of the time." He said the latter to Rose, trying to reassure her that she and her daughters were not in any danger from them.

"We won't have to fight it, will we?" Tally asked. She had nightmares about weevils and a scar on her back from one. Both were from before Jenny and Rose had arrived in her life.

The Torchwood team looked completely and utterly horrified at the suggestion. Rose shook her head.

"No, you never have to fight again if you don't want to." She reassured the girl. "I'll explain Jack, and dinner would be good. The girls have never had fish and chips before, so that would be nice." She'd missed chips. Potatoes had never been exactly successful in Pete's World and the ones that did exist there tasted wrong.

"Got it," Ianto assured her, already calling their normal chip shop.

"We have space in the Hub if you want to park your ship there," Jack suggested. "I take it the Doctor doesn't know you're back yet?"

Rose shook her head. "No, and something is coming Jack, something bad."

"The pepper pots with lazars," Tally piped up, hiding behind Rose again when Jack looked at her.

"Jack, what is she talking about?" Gwen was curious about this strange woman and her daughters and the affect they were having on her boss.

"She doesn't mean?" Jack felt real fear flash through him. He'd managed to come through Canary Wharf without having to face any Daleks or get too close to the Cybermen, but neither was an enemy he'd ever forget or take lightly.

"Yep," Rose nodded, "like I said, long story."

* * *

It wasn't until after the girls had been fed and put to bed that Rose sat down with her friend and told him the entire story. Except for the Doctor, Jack was probably the only person she trusted with the whole truth.

"I'm so sorry that you had to go through that Rosie," Jack said softly as he held her. "I wish I could have been there to help."

"Thank you, but I'm glad you weren't. I don't even want to think what they would have done to you or the Doctor."

"Been there, done that," he told her, thinking of both his experiences with Torchwood and the Master. "I'll probably end up going through it again at some point. A hazard of being me I'm afraid."

"Jack, have you noticed anything odd happening lately?" Rose broached the subject.

"Not really, been busy dealing with losing Owen and Tosh and keeping things running smoothly with only the three of us." Jack told her.

"The stars are going out, everywhere," Rose told him. "That's why I risked using the rift to bring us here. I think whatever is happening, is going to happen, will happen here. Tally's visions point that way."

"Having a seer around is new," Jack remembered the strange little girl who had twice read his cards. Maybe not so new, for him anyway.

"Yea, and scary. Sometimes they send her into hysterics, they terrify her so badly. Combined with her telepathy, it's a wonder she hasn't gone bloody mad." Rose hugged her knees to her chest. "Have you seen him then, since the Game Station?"

"I have," Jack nodded. "He was traveling with a woman named Martha Jones for a while, but she works for UNIT now. I don't know who his current companion might be. He tends to stay away from me because I unsettle him," and because Jack had chosen to stay on Earth with Torchwood after the year that never was. The Doctor wasn't one to visit.

"Her name's Donna Noble," Rose told him and how she knew that information. "I think she might be one of the few women he knows that isn't interested in him as anything but a friend."

"When do you think they'll get here?" Jack asked, knowing that what was coming was going to require the Doctor.

"Soon," she said softly, "it's going to start soon."


	5. Chapter 5

Reunions and Wolf Cubs

Chapter 5

I do not own Doctor Who!

* * *

The world shifted and everything changed.

Rose had been in the Hub with Jack and his team (she liked Gwen a lot and she thought Jack and Ianto made a sweet couple although she didn't use that world where Jack could hear her) when it happened. She gasped as her ship disappeared.

"No!" Her daughters had been onboard.

"We've got visuals!" Gwen shouted, bringing their attention to her as she brought up the outside cameras. "What are those things?" She knew she should recognize them, but it escaped her mind at the moment.

"Daleks," Jack said darkly, "if you ever wondered what hate would look like in person, you're looking at it now."

"Jack, we need to get out there. If they've taken the TARDIS…" Rose felt dread fill her. She hardly even felt her ship and the girls were barely a faint touch in her mind. It was if they were out of time from her and a world away.

"And do what Rose?" Jack asked her. "We need to figure out what's going on first, and then we can worry about the girls. The ship will protect them, they'll be okay."

"They're alone! How can they be okay?" Rose yelled at him. "I'm going out, and you can't stop me."

He really couldn't, not when her eyes were glowing gold. Jack let her go and he hoped she would be alright. He cared about all of them, but he had a job to do. Sometimes, he really hated that he had to make those kinds of decisions.

"Right, see if we can get ahold of anyone." He told Gwen. "Ianto, bring out the arsenal. Let's see if we've got anything that can take down a Dalek."

Rose would have to be okay on her own. As much as Jack wanted to be out there with her, he had a responsibility to Earth and the people living on it. He had to put them first, even when it hurt him to do so.

* * *

"What was that?" Donna grabbed the railing again as something knocked into the TARDIS.

They were in empty space. Space where the Earth had been only moments before; where it was supposed to be but no longer was. What could be bumping into them?

"Let me…there we go!" The Doctor flipped on the outside sensors and an image filled the screen.

"I thought you said you were the only one left? And why is it red?" Donna hit his shoulder. "Oi, spaceman! Pay attention!"

"It's not possible…where did it come from?" For a moment he had the frightening thought of the Master returning (which is just what they needed at the moment), but the Master didn't have a TARDIS (and he was dead).

Beeping rang out in the room. The Doctor began typing.

"Whoever it is, they're sending a distress signal." He pulled up an image as his ship connected with the other.

Two little girls were now staring back at him.

"Help! Does anyone know what happened? Mum, are you out there? Why isn't she letting us out?" The brunette girl was talking at the screen. "She's not telling me anything!"

"Dad?" The blonde said softly, staring directly at him. "Tally, Talia! This isn't recording, it's live! Dad, Dad it's me, Jenny! Can you see us?"

"Jenny? But…did you regenerate?" Had he abandoned his child, again? Or was this a different Jenny? Could there be a different Jenny? She was certainly younger than his Jenny had been.

"Sort of, it's a long story." Jenny replied. "Tally, it's Dad! And that's Donna. We must have run into them, that or they parked in the Hub too."

"Jenny, what's going on?" The Doctor was confused and he didn't like that feeling. "What are you talking about? Where did you get a TARDIS?"

"It's Mum's, they rescued each other from Torchwood in the other universe." Tally explained. Jenny was practically vibrating beside her. "Uncle Jack's Torchwood is much nicer, and that's where we were until we weren't."

"Okay," the Doctor thought quickly, "I'm going to dock your ship inside mine, and then we're going to talk. We'll figure it out."

"What about Mum?" Tally asked, fighting tears. "I need Mum! I don't know him!" She'd turned to her sister, fear in her eyes. _Jenny, what if he hates me?_

"It'll be okay, Dad'll get her back or she'll find us. You know she'll always find us, she promised and Mum never breaks her promises." Jenny assured the other girl. "We're going to be fine." She smirked. "You _know_ no one messes with the Bad Wolf and her cubs."

The Doctor froze in what he was doing. Rose…was back? He knew she'd sent those warnings to Donna in the alternate timeline, but could she really be back? His hearts tightened in his chest. He hoped so.

Donna, watching him, hoped the blonde woman who had helped her was back as well. For the Doctor's sake if nothing else, the red-head hoped Rose Tyler was back in this universe and was here to stay.

Ten minutes later the other TARDIS was safely docked inside his. Only seconds after that he was hugging his daughter. It was really his Jenny, and this time he could feel her in his head. His ship was humming, welcoming the girls and her sister ship.

"I thought I'd never see you again," Jenny said tearfully. "This is Tally, my sister. She rescued me from a mad scientist and then mum rescued the both of us from the fighting ring we were trapped in."

"It's more complicated than that," Tally spoke softly, once again shy. She could feel this man and his ship, and they felt nice. "But we need to find mum, she's going to need help."

"We have to find the Earth first space cadets," Donna reminded them.

Tally closed her eyes. "We need to follow the bees, and help is coming from those still on the Planet."

"How do you know that?" The Doctor was studying the girl. He knew Jenny had two hearts, but it seemed like this girl did as well. He knew where Jenny came from, but what of this girl? How was it possible to have _two_ Gallifreyan children?

"Tally's physic, she sees things," Jenny answered for her sister. _She's also a telepath_.

She'd done it without thinking. Rose never kept them out or told them not to use their telepathy when needing to talk. She hadn't realized that it would make her father jump or even thought he'd take offense to her being in his head.

Startled, the Doctor didn't say anything. However, he did strengthen his shields. That way, only the most basic of things could be passed around. Neither girl needed to see the things he had in his head.

"Right then, follow the bees! What's that mean?"

As Donna and the Doctor spoke, the girls sat off to the side. Both trusted that the Doctor could get them back to their mother. He was their dad after all. That was part of his job.

* * *

Rose was scared and furious. This was not a good combination for her to be, not when there was trouble brewing.

Daleks were everywhere and it was getting darker. She'd ended up in Chiswick, although how she didn't want to think about. She blasted a Dalek to atoms (for all she knew they'd taken her daughters, there would be no mercy), rescuing the people she recognized as Donna's family.

She went home with them. Someone had to keep them safe, and she needed access to a computer. Admittedly, a computer with a webcam would have been better.

"Oh," she gently touched the screen when the Doctor appeared, "they're safe."

"Who're the little girls?" Wilf asked as Sylvia nattered on about irresponsible parenting.

"My daughters, I adopted them although, long story I really don't have time to tell right now, Jenny is biologically the Doctor's daughter." Rose explained. "My ship must have found his when the Daleks took the Earth."

"They're beautiful," Wilf told her.

"Thank you," she smiled sadly at him. "I need to go. They're going to need me, all of them."

"Right, good luck." Wilf told her.

"Thanks," Rose hugged him, surprising them both before leaving.

* * *

Finding the TARDIS was easier then she thought it would be. It was there, a little more worn than she remembered it but her song was the same. She sang to her, drawing her closer to home. She loved her TARDIS, but this was the one she had first called home.

She stopped and watched, taking him in from the back. He was there and he was real. It wasn't just the TARDIS she could hear. Her girls were there to and so was he.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Donna nodded behind him.

He turned, eyes widening as he took her in. Time froze for just a second, and then they were running towards each other.

"Rose!"

"Doctor!"

It was every romantic cliché she hated, but Rose didn't care as they collided. She was crying, she realized as she hugged him. He picked her up and spun her around, and she realized he was crying too.

"Mum!" Two little voices shouted, drawing her attention.

"EX-TER-MI-NATE!"

"NO!" The doctor threw himself between the blast and the children. He grunted, hitting the ground as his girls converged on him.

A boom shattered the air as the Dalek's top exploded. Jack was standing there looking incredibly smug until he saw the Doctor.

"You can't leave now," Rose was crying harder. "We just found you!"

"Get him into the TARDIS," Jack helped her pick the Doctor up. "Come on Rose."

Everyone filed back into the ship. Rose gathered her girls into her arms as the Doctor began to glow. All of them were crying as Jack held Donna back from getting in the way. It surprised all of them when he funneled the majority of the energy into his spare hand.

"Don't scare us like that again!" Rose shoved his shoulder, interrupting his hyper little speech about his hand.

He hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry, I'll try not to." He grinned as he felt two smaller sets of arms join the hug. "Got more than just me now, don't I?" He was terrified and ecstatic at the same time on top of his confusion, but none of that was really important at this moment in time. Rose, his Rose, was back. They would figure it out, they usually did.

"Yea, ya do," Rose agreed. "So what's the plan?"

"Don't know just yet, but I'll think of one."

Jack and Donna both snorted in derision. The Doctor _never_ had a plan, at least one he went in with.

"We should grab onto something," Tally told them.

The Doctor almost asked why, but Rose and Jenny just did as she said. The TARDIS lurched as she was pulled into the sky.

"I guess we're going to the Crucible," the Doctor felt chilled. This had just become far more dangerous than anything else he'd ever done.

"Girls, TARDIS, now!" Rose ordered. "Go…" where was she to send them? The Hub?

"Sarah Jane's," The Doctor finished for her. "She has a son now, don't know the story yet, but they'll be safe there." If nothing else, they could use the other TARDIS as shelter from the Daleks, even use it to escape if need be.

"Mum, we can't leave you!" Jenny protested.

"Yes you can, we'll be back before you know it." Rose kissed their foreheads. "Now go, be safe and _go_!"

"Jenny, come on! We can't be here, it'll distract them from what they need to do." Tally tugged her sister's hand. "It's not our fight yet Jenny."

"Fine, but come back to us, both of you!" She called back to their parents as the two girls ran.

Maybe she didn't like the running as much as she thought she did.


	6. Chapter 6

Reunions and Wolf Cubs

Chapter 6

I DO NOT OWN DOCTOR WHO!

* * *

The Crucible was a horrid place to end up. Jack had just temporarily died, the TARDIS had been destroyed, Donna had been taken (loudly) to join the other prisoners, and now she and the Doctor were in tiny little cells to be playthings for Davros. She hoped the girls had gotten to Sarah Jane's alright. She could still feel them so she knew they were at least alive.

Then everything seemed to get even worse. Martha was threatening to destroy the Earth. Jack, Sarah Jane, Donna, and _Mickey_ (who Rose was happy to see alive, if older) were ready to destroy the ship itself. The Daleks had a plan for that however and soon they were trapped in little cells as well.

 _Don't listen to him Luv_ , Rose sent to the Doctor, _we are what we made ourselves. Did you help with that? Yes, by showing us that we could be more than we thought we could be. You didn't make any of our choices for us, and even when you tried to we didn't listen._ Rose was only telling him the truth, just as Donna was defending him to Davros by saying pretty much the same thing.

 _Thank you._ He sent her a small smile. _Rose, what is it with villains giving lectures about their plans?_

 _Maybe they think one day it'll work in their favor?_ She joked back.

"You know," she said aloud, "you're really annoyin'." She was glaring at Davros. This…person had endangered her daughters, her friends, and her home planet. He'd had one of her homes and a friend destroyed.

"Silence human child," Davros ordered her. "Did you think we, the Dalek Empire, would not know of a second TARDIS?" Four Daleks came into the room with the girls between them. The red TARDIS was being dragged behind them.

"No," Rose whispered, horrified. "No! Don't you hurt them!" She pounded the energy field around her, growling at the sparks sending her back.

"Mum!" Tally and Jenny were scared. They had tried to do as their parents had told them, but the ship had only been able to leave the blue TARDIS. Something had been blocking her ability to leave the Crucible itself.

"Let them go Davros!" The Doctor ordered, rage filling him. He'd already lost one world to the Daleks. He wasn't going to lose another.

"Yes, let them join their parents," Davros told the Daleks holding the children. "Let them see just what their father is." He was smiling as he said it. "Witness the orchestrator of your demise." Davros revealed Caan. "Just as your soul was revealed Doctor, the man who hates weapons but molds his friends into them, so he reveals our future glory."

Rose was disgusted by the mad Dalek, but horrified when he said the end of his so-called prophecy. She held the girls closer to her, swearing to herself that it wouldn't come to pass.

"The Children of Time gather, and one will die." He giggled. "Oh, I've seen it Doctor!"

Tally whimpered softly, clinging to Rose. She'd seen it as well and she knew who was to die. She knew that it had changed, but she had no notion as to what Caan might know about it.

 _Shh, be brave my cubs. We'll get through this. We'll stop them._ Rose tried to sooth them, but she couldn't help but feel as if she were lying. She didn't know how they were going to get through this.

Of course, that was when their normal luck appeared to reassert itself as the blue TARDIS appeared and the red one began to glow.

"What is this?" Davros demanded. "What are you doing Doctor?"

"TIME LORD TREACHERY!" One Dalek decreed, shooting at the TARDIS nearest him.

It was the red one, and she didn't take kindly to the action. The laser blast rebounded, striking the Dalek and sending its dead shell into the wall behind it.

"Get down!" The Doctor ordered his friends, doing so himself. The prison cells deactivated, giving him just enough time to get to Rose and the girls to try and shield them.

The red TARDIS sent out a pulse of light and heat. Rose cried out in pain, feeling her ship beginning to die. What was it doing? How was it doing it? She knew that the TARDIS ships were alive, that they were sentient beings of a kind. She did not know or understand how or why one would be able to do this without a pilot.

 _Go back to my sister my Wolf, become her Wolf once again. She misses you and my job is done. She will care for you and our cubs now._ It was the first complete thought she'd had from the ship since the day they had escaped.

"Rose, just breathe, you'll be alright." The Doctor didn't know what was going on or why Rose would be in so much pain. Her pain he could feel, as if a part of her was dying. "Get into the TARDIS, everyone, now!" He ordered, hoping the rest of them were alright in the ongoing confusion. "Girls, go to Jack. I've got her."

"Stop them!" Davros ordered those Daleks that had escaped the attack like he had. Caan was giggling again, unaffected by the attack.

"The end is come, and we are undone." Caan announced even as Rose stood apart from the Doctor. "Welcome Bad Wolf. We meet at last."

"This ends," Rose's voice echoed. Her eyes were glowing and she was no longer just Rose Tyler. The air around her shimmered with the golden energy of the time vortex as held within a TARDIS. "A child of time has died and her death will not be in vain."

Daleks were shouting about exterminating the abomination, protecting Davros and Caan, and continuing with the Reality Bomb. It was chaos in its purest form with Bad Wolf and Dalek Caan being the only two pools of calm.

The Doctor, Jenny, and Tally were standing together, staring at Rose in a mixture of fear, concern, and awe. Jack and Mickey had gotten everyone else inside the Doctor's TARDIS, but they were all gathered to see what was going on. They were all silent amongst the chaos around them.

" **I return that which has been stolen** ," Bad Wolf ignored the angry cries of the Daleks even as she (almost absently) deflected their attacks. The planets outside the viewing window began to disappear.

" **I undo what has been recreated**." All around them the Daleks began to disappear in shimmers of light particles. Davros screamed in anger and frustration, raising his own weapon to kill the woman in front of him. The second scream he gave was as he was turned into atoms, and he knew no more as he was returned to his fate in the jaws of the Nightmare Child just in time for Caan to save him. Bad Wolf then locked the events in place, ensuring that this was the way it would continue to happen.

" **I end the threat to the universe and time itself**." The machinery in the crucible began to self-destruct, setting off a chain reaction across the Dalek fleet as those ships disintegrated.

"Rose! That's it! You've done enough!" The Doctor wanted to go to her, even as she glowed with a power that had killed him once before. "You can let go now!"

"Mum! Please, get on the TARDIS!" Jenny yelled.

"Mum, come back to us! Give us our Mum back!" Tally shouted. "Bad Wolf can't stay forever! You aren't meant to!"

" **Stand back my cubs, my Doctor** ," Bad Wolf told them. " **Rose is fine, and she will be back**." She walked into the TARDIS.

Everyone kept out of her way.

Jack met the woman's eyes briefly, but had to look away. This was a goddess, the creature who had made him immortal. It terrified him beyond measure that one of his closest friends could wield so much power.

Mickey was scared for Rose, not understanding what was happening to his friend. Was the glowing woman even his friend anymore?

Sarah Jane was struck both by her young friend's ethereal presence and concerned for the human (if that was, indeed, what Rose still was) girl inside Bad Wolf's power.

Donna was just stunned at the sight, speechless for one of the few times in her life and a little afraid. If the Doctor had Rose back, where was Donna's place in his life? He wouldn't need her anymore. There was no way she, who was just a temp from Chiswick, could compare to this woman.

Martha was just as speechless as Donna but a little less terrified. It was no wonder the Doctor had never looked twice at her.

Bad Wolf knelt beside the Doctor's hand. It was glowing as well, full as it was of regeneration energy. She touched it, completing the loop when she touched the TARDIS consul. Everyone had to look away as light filled the TARDIS. The TARDIS began to hum loud enough for all of them to hear it.

Smiling, Bad Wolf turned her attention to the object before her. It had to go. There would be no metacrisis doctor in this timeline, no Doctor-Donna. She sent the regeneration energy into the TARDIS before destroying the hand. It would never be used against her Doctor again.

 _A long time gone my friend._

 _My wolf._

 _Indeed, and a gift. Do you accept? It's bound to become chaotic._

 _I accept. My Thief has been alone for too long and it would be nice to have time tots around again._

 _Then I give it freely and return to you once again. Keep your sister's heart and memories safe, my friend._

 _I will._

Rose cried out as the power left her and was absorbed by the TARDIS. She panted, entire body aching as her hearts pounded in her chest. Her memories were foggy, as if from a dream rather than real time.

"Wha' happened? Where're the girls?" She tried to sit up only to be tackled back to the floor grating.

"Mum!" The girls babbled more, but Rose didn't understand most of it. She had them back and they were safe. That was all that mattered.

"Mum, we've still got to get the Earth home. Bad Wolf didn't send it back, and it's the only one left." Tally managed to get out understandably.

"Bad Wolf?" Rose asked in confusion.

"Yea, our TARDIS died and you turned into Bad Wolf," Jenny told her.

The Doctor knelt down beside them. "Are you alright Rose?" He touched her gently, half afraid he'd find her eyes glowing.

"Yeah…I think so." The pain was already fading. "I…don't really remember. Like after the game station."

"Pretty much, that's what happened." The Doctor told her, helping her to stand. "Are you _sure_ that you're alright?"

"Yeah," she smiled at him, "I'm alright."

"Sorry to break this up," Jack told them, "but we've still got a planet out there." He was relieved to see that Rose was back to normal.

"Right!" The Doctor "And, off we go!" He sent the TARDIS flying just as the Crucible hit critical and exploded.

"What about the Earth, it's stuck in the wrong part of space." Sarah Jane hung onto the consul. They'd all gravitated there as the TARDIS was spinning.

"I'm on it!" The Doctor turned to the screen. "Torchwood hub, this is the Doctor, are you receiving me?"

"Loud and clear, is Jack there?" Gwen and Ianto were at the same station they'd been waiting at since the time bubble had gone into effect.

"Can't get rid of him," the Doctor replied, staring at the woman who looked oddly familiar. "Jack, what's her name?"

"Gwen Cooper," Jack replied with a grin. He was proud of his small team. They'd handled things well and he was glad they were still alive and safe. It was with a glance at Rose's grin that he realized he'd just lost their bet.

"Tell me Gwen Cooper, are you from an old Cardiff family?" The Doctor and Rose exchanged smiles as Gwen confirmed that her family went all the way back to the 1800s. He quickly told them what he needed them to do.

"Doing it now Sir," Ianto popped into the screen briefly before going to do as the Doctor said.

"What's that for?" Martha asked, wondering what crazy, impossible idea the Doctor was going to manage now.

"Tow rope," he answered, "Now Sarah, what was your son's name?"

"Luke, he's called Luke. And the computer's called Mr. Smith." Sarah Jane told him.

"Calling Luke and Mr. Smith, this is the Doctor!" He got their attention, nearly dancing in place. His ship was humming, excited for what was about to come.

"Is mum there?" Luke had stood up and practically leapt to Mr. Smith.

"Oh she's fine and dandy," the Doctor told him.

Sarah Jane cheered to herself. Her son was still safe! At least _something_ had gone right today. She listened as the Doctor told Mr. Smith what he needed.

"I regret that I will need remote access to TARDIS base code numerals."

The Doctor grimaced. "Oh blimey, that's gonna take a while."

"No, no, no, let me!" Sarah Jane went around, Rose moving out of her way so she was in view of the screen. "K-9, out you come!" She told the robot dog what needed done.

"Affirmative mistress!" As the Doctor grinned madly, K-9 did as was requested. "TARDIS base code now being transferred. Process is simple!"

The Doctor hopped around the consul, telling people to press or hold or move certain things as he explained why his ship was always rattling around. They had enough pilots now to fly her like she was meant to be flown.

"With the Torchwood rift looped around the TARDIS by Mr. Smith, we're going to fly planet Earth back home." He looked around as he took his place. "Aright then? Off we go." He flipped the final switch.

"Allons-y!" Jenny and Tally shouted, drawing manic smiles and laughter from the adults.

Donna and Mickey stayed back and let the others work. Tally was holding onto Rose and Jenny had the same grip on the Doctor. Everyone was laughing in a mix of relief and sheer enjoyment as they moved the Earth across space and back into its proper orbit. It was like an extreme roller-coaster ride, one without a safety harness. It was glorious and added to their sense of accomplishment.

After all, it wasn't everyday someone got to say that they'd helped fly the TARDIS.

* * *

Sarah Jane was the first stop. She hated to rush off, but Luke _was_ only fourteen. Plus there was Clyde and Rani to check on, not to mention a house to put back together. She hugged both the Doctor and Rose goodbye, making certain that Rose had her number and she had the one for the TARDIS.

"So, Cardiff?" The Doctor asked grinning. "Or, well, back to New York Martha?"

"Cardiff is fine with me," Martha replied, "I can contact Unit from there." She eyed Mickey, wondering what he was going to do.

"My team's waiting for me there," Jack said, eager to return. He'd promised after all.

"That's where I've been," Mickey added in, "working freelance around cheesecake's lot."

"Oi!" Jack protested. Mickey just smirked at him. "And here I was thinking you might want a job."

While the two of them bickered at each other, Rose rolled her eyes. She had no idea what they were going to do now. Their ship was gone…well, mostly gone. Some of it remained within the Doctor's TARDIS. However, he hadn't asked if they were going with him and Donna yet. The last thing she wanted was to assume something.

"Mum," Tally got her attention.

"Yeah?" Rose picked the girl up. Tally was the one who tended to tire faster and slept more despite being a time tot. Jenny would run around for a week at a time if Rose would let her.

"Where's our room? I'm really tired." She yawned, laying her head on her mother's shoulder. "The visions are all gone for right now."

"Alright, let's find your room then." If nothing else, her room was most likely still around and she could put them there for the night.

"Rose?" The Doctor looked up from setting the coordinates.

"Tally's exhausted, so I'm going to put her to bed." Rose caught Jenny yawning. "You too Jenny, come on."

"But mum! I'm not tired!" It would have been more impressive if she hadn't yawned in the middle of her statement.

"Jennifer Donna Tyler, its bed time." Rose said firmly, holding out her hand.

"Yes mum," Jenny replied, taking the offered hand. She squealed when Rose picked her up.

The girls said goodnight, although Tally was nearly asleep already. The Doctor watched them go, wanting to follow them.

"Well go on then spaceman," Donna told him, shoving him after Rose. "There ain't gonna be an engraved invitation!"

"Right, uh, be right back." He hurried after the trio of girls (although Rose was no longer a girl).

"Donna Nobel, I like you," Jack told her with a smirk. He'd never seen the Doctor listen that fast to anyone except Rose and he'd only reacted like that when Jackie Tyler was mentioned.

"Oi, no flirting from you Harkness," Donna told him sternly.

"I wasn't flirting!" Jack denied.

"You saying _hello_ is flirting," Martha told him, "with everyone."

As they teased Jack in the main consul room, the Doctor followed after Rose and their girls. He found them in a new room (to him at least). He watched as Rose tucked the girls in.

"Mum, would you sing for us, please?" Jenny asked quietly. Just for tonight they were both cuddled together on her bed, leaving the top bunk empty.

"Like you have to ask," Rose told her, humming in thought for a moment.

" _Although you see the world_

 _Different than me_

 _Sometimes I can touch upon_

 _The wonders that you see_

 _All the new colors and pictures you've designed_

 _Oh yes sweet darlin'_

 _So glad you are a child of mine"_

The Doctor listened as she sang. It was a sound he had missed during her absence. Not that she had ever done so around him, and he'd been surprised the first time he'd heard her. However, it was some of the few times he could be quiet and just watch her. He would duck back and make a sound to alert her of his presence before reappearing.

He'd made a comment once about having heard her. She'd blushed and muttered an apology, thinking she'd disturbed him. He'd managed to tell her he thought it was nice before babbling about some nonsense to remove the awkwardness. It had either been that or kiss her, and he'd been far from ready at the point to break any of his rules regarding his relationship with Rose Tyler.

Or rather, he'd been a coward. So afraid of losing her that he hadn't dared anything beyond friendship, something he regretted now. He didn't know if it would have changed anything, but having lived without her he knew he never wanted to do so again now that he had her back.

Rose kissed each sleeping girl on the forehead, aware of the Doctor behind her but not acknowledging him just yet. She turned on several glowing stones in a variety of colors that were sitting on the nightstand. Neither girl liked the dark. It held too many bad memories for the both of them. The lights, connected to a smaller set in her own room, also served to alert her if they needed her.

Finished with that, Rose stood to face the Doctor. She knew he 'didn't do domestics', but if they were going to make any kind of relationship work now he would have to get used to them.

"I guess some of the rooms made it over this way when…" She ducked her head so he wouldn't see her cry. Her ship was gone, _dead_. A small part of her was glad it had been her TARDIS instead of her daughters, her Doctor, or any of their human friends. That made her grief worse, because her ship had been her only friend for years.

In two quick strides, the Doctor had her in his arms. "It's okay, or it will be okay." He wanted to know what had happened in Pete's World, how Rose had gotten her TARDIS, and how she'd gotten back here. Would she want to go home? He knew she had said she was staying here, but surely she and the girls would want to say goodbye to their family. There were still some rips open. He could find one and take them for a quick trip back, maybe offer them a return here.

"I know," she returned his hug, "just, so much has happened since we were together and I don't even know where to start."

"The beginning?" He suggested.

"Are you going to take us back to Pete's World?" Rose would think about what he said, but this was the important thing right now.

"Don't you want to at least go and say goodbye?"

"They don't even remember me," Rose admitted softly, "Torchwood's fault. Until today, I thought Mickey was dead from one of the jump experiments. My little brother doesn't even know I exist. Mum's never met her granddaughters and I never even really got to know Pete very well. I'm no one to them." She shook her head. Not that it really mattered anymore anyway. Her parents were both dead, time moving faster there than it did here. Coming back to this world meant some time travel was involved on top of going thru the void.

"I'm sorry Rose," the Doctor didn't know what else to say. He hurt for her. As much as Jackie scared him, she'd been Rose's mother and thus had become important to him. "How long?"

"Fifty-four years, six months, two weeks, and four days I was there," Rose whispered. "Five months, three weeks, two days, sixteen hours, twenty-three minuets and thirty-one seconds of that I was a prisoner at Torchwood." She shuddered. "I'll tell you more when we're where the girls can't hear us." She _never_ wanted them to know the full extent of the torture she'd gone through. They had enough of their own nightmares, they didn't need hers.

"Of course." He agreed, although he had a sinking suspicion of what Rose had gone through.

"Come on, we've got friends to take home. I bet Donna want's to check in on her family as well." Rose released him, but grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together.

"But you're staying right?" He asked, voice small. "You're going to stay with me?"

"Do you want us to?" Rose asked quietly, needing to know.

"More than anything in the universe, any of them." He told her with complete seriousness. "I never want to let you go again." He breathed deeply. "Rose Tyler, I love you," was as far as he got because she was kissing him. He had no idea where the sudden courage had come from, but he was glad that for once in his long life, he'd heeded it.

"About time you finished that sentence," she told him when they broke apart. "I love you too."

Smiling at each other, they finally returned to the control room. It was unsurprising to find the quartet they'd left there still going at it. Only now, they were exchanging stories.

"This is why I try to avoid having my companions meet each other," he grumbled to Rose.

She laughed. "Come on Doctor, it's not that bad." She smiled her tongue in teeth smile at him. "Besides, I know you've got some interesting stories to tell of your own." She spoke louder. "Like the time Jack got caught flirting with the maiden prince on Thrombus IV by pretty much everyone."

"Oh come on, not that one!" Jack groaned.

"You're right," Rose said, "at least, not without Gwen and Ianto present." She was smiling widely as she teased him. She was still a little upset at him for before, but couldn't fault him for it. The Earth and his team were his first priorities and that was as it should be. For Rose, her family came first and that included Jack. She knew that if she'd really needed him, he'd have been there with her.

Jack opened his mouth, ready to tell her that she wouldn't do such a thing but snapped it closed just as quickly. Rose _would_ do it, and she'd time it just right to either get him in the most trouble or the biggest laugh. Probably a little of both knowing just how much trouble the three of them could get into. He settled for pouting.

"You owe me twenty quid by the way, I won." She told him, ignoring his pouting.

"You won a bet with Captain Flirt?" Martha grinned. She liked Jack, she really did, but it was so much fun teasing him out of his serious attitude that she couldn't help herself. "What was it on?"

Rose explained about the Ghelf and Gwen looking more or less exactly like Gwyneth. "Jack didn't think the Doctor would notice and Gwen wasn't entirely certain she believed me. Ianto stayed out of it."

The Doctor listened to them as they chatted. He stayed as close to Rose as he could without hovering. He might have made the trip last longer than it normally would have, but it was so rare to have so many people in the TARDIS. It seemed to make all of the females in his life happy and he wanted to make that last as long as possible.

"Torchwood Hub," he finally called out as they landed.

"Home sweet home," Jack was smiling widely as he got up and went to the door. He'd barely gotten it open when he had his arms full of Gwen. "I told you I'd be back."

She shoved his shoulder a bit. "The last time it took you eighteen months. Besides, we wanted to see inside this place."

"Sir," Ianto greeted.

Gwen stepped aside so her friend could greet his lover. She smiled widely when Ianto broke his normal rule of 'no kissing on the job' as he snogged Jack. She was even more tickled to see Jack's look of surprise. She left them to it and looked around the TARDIS, comparing it to Rose's.

"Hello!" The Doctor greeted brightly. "Are they going to continue doing that?"

Gwen shrugged, "probably."

"Oh be quiet spaceman," Donna told him, "it's sweet."

Mickey took this time to talk to Rose. "I guess this is goodbye again, huh?"

"Yea, but we'll come back." Impulsively, she hugged him. "I thought you were dead. You didn't come back and we couldn't find you."

"Not dead, just here," he shrugged. "Landed just before Canary Wharf, and believe me I was tempted to try and change it, but," he shrugged again. He'd spent enough time around the Doctor to know not to meddle in things. The last thing he wanted was to actually meet the reapers. Those things were scary enough just from Rose's stories.

"I understand," and she did. "But you'll keep in touch, yeah? Call if you need any help?"

"Yeah, and this time," he handed her his phone, "give me both numbers." He watched her. "What happened over there in the other world?"

"Long story, one I don't like thinking about." She told him.

"But you'll talk to him about it?" He nodded to where the Doctor and Donna were talking with Martha and the Torchwood team. Okay, so mostly he was staring at Martha.

"Yeah, I will." Rose didn't want to hurt Mickey. He was still her friend, and he'd never been made to forget her. "They've all forgotten me there," she told him, "Torchwood did it, somehow. Completely wiped me from existence," an existence that Pete had set up for her, one that had been hard to get used to but she'd almost been there.

"I'm sorry Rose, I really am." Mickey couldn't even begin to imagine what that must have felt like. Yeah, he'd felt forgotten and even cheated out of time with his former girlfriend when she'd gone off with the Doctor but he hadn't been. "If it helps, you're a hard one to forget."

She laughed, her smile back. "Thank you Mickey, and take care of yourself."

"I will, and don't let him keep you away too long." They hugged again.

Joining the group in the doorway, Rose went to the Doctor's side and took his hand. He laced their fingers together, smiling at her.

"We're off then," Jack hugged both of them goodbye. "I'll keep an eye on him Rose, don't worry."

"I know you will," Rose returned his hug. "Call us if you need us," she told him softly, "even if you just need a hug or something." She smirked. "Although, I'm sure Ianto won't mind helping you out there."

Jack grinned at her, "I'll keep that in mind," he promised her. "Such a dirty mind."

"I learned from the best," she hugged him again. "I love you Jack, please don't forget that."

"Love you too Rosie, and I won't."

The two friends separated and Jack left with his team, Martha, and Mickey. Mickey was already offering Martha a ride back into London.

"So now what?" Donna asked, trying to brace herself for whatever they were going to say. She'd have to leave now, probably. After all, they had each other and the girls currently sleeping somewhere on the ship. What did they need her for?

"I don't know, Barcelona's always good. We haven't gone there yet." The Doctor suggested. "Or we can go to the past, or the future. We could take you home for a visit, check to see everyone's alright."

Donna stared at him. "You want me to stay then?"

The Doctor looked up in surprise. "Don't you want to stay?" Donna was his best friend, very much like what he'd imagined a sister or a very close cousin (in Earth terms at least) to be like. Did she really think he didn't need her anymore because Rose was back?

"Of course I want to stay ya daft Martian!" Donna told him, managing to keep her volume low since the girls were sleeping somewhere on the ship. "I just thought…" she trailed off. She didn't want to hurt either of them. She was glad they were back together.

Rose nudged him. _She needs to hear you say it, just like you need to hear when we want to stay._

"I, _we_ ," he clarified, "want you here Donna." The Doctor told her. "Wouldn't be the same without you."

"Then yeah, a trip home would be good. Grandad probably has tons of questions for the both of us."

"Noble house it is!" Back to his normal self, the Doctor proceeded to do just that.


	7. Chapter 7

Reunions and Wolf Cubs

Chapter 7

I DO NOT OWN DOCTOR WHO!

* * *

Donna decided that she'd stay a week to catch up with her family and help them put the house back into order. Besides that, she thought it would be nice to be the one who actually knew what had been going on rather than missing it like she normally did. Donna also figured that if the Doctor couldn't get things worked out with Rose and the girls in that time then she had a week to plan how to help him do so.

The girls had stayed asleep through her departure, and Donna had to wonder what it would be like traveling with two children. Would the Doctor do something completely unlike himself and stay in one place until they got older? That would be boring, and he'd hate it before a week was done. Donna doubted that since, from what the girls had said, they'd been traveling with Rose into all sorts of trouble in the other universe.

She just hoped that the Doctor's driving skills didn't make him late. She also hoped that if they changed their minds about letting her stay, they'd at least tell her to her face.

The Doctor sent the TARDIS into the Time Vortex, setting it to 'hover' there. He set the coordinates to take them to exactly a week from when they had left Donna (triple checked it, didn't want it to be a year…again), leaving only the final lever to throw when they were ready to go.

Silence fell, neither he nor Rose knowing where to start. She'd shielded herself from him, although he could still tell that she was there. He could feel them, all three of them, there in his mind where he'd almost grown accustomed to the constant silence. He hadn't felt Jenny the first time, but he had to wonder now if they had had longer together if her telepathy would have shown itself.

"How long will they be asleep?" He asked into the silence.

"Another few hours at the very least," Rose answered, "usually depends on how tired they are. It's been less since they first joined me."

"How…how did this all happen?" He asked softly, really wanting to do nothing more than pull Rose to him and never let her go outside of hand-holding range ever again. Or hugging range…yes, hugging range would be good…although, that would make doing certain things (like flying the TARDIS) much more difficult. He guessed he would settle for hand-holding.

She approached him, hugging him tightly when he didn't move away from her. His arms came around her, holding her close as she buried herself into his chest. He moved them to the nearest available seat which, thanks to their (yes, he decided in his mind, _their_ ) ship was the sofa in the library. The library was larger now, having grown from taking in the other TARDIS. He would have to ask her about that.

"Where do you want me to start?" She asked him once they were settled.

"Where ever you want to," he replied. He had no idea why they were being so quiet. It wasn't as if the girls would be disturbed if they were loud. The girls, in fact, would be perfectly fine. The TARDIS would alert them if their daughters needed them.

"Jenny doesn't remember much about how she got to the other universe or what happened after she crashed," Rose began. The girls she could talk about. What had happened to her…that was something she had to work up to. "Between crashing and waking up with Tally untying her, she has little to no memory. I'm glad she doesn't."

Rose had found and wiped out Struan's files and notes, keeping Jenny's and Tally's just long enough to figure out what had been done to them. She didn't like death or killing, but she was glad that that man had been sentenced to death for his 'crimes against nature, children, and the human race'. She'd watched it carried out as her girls lay in the medical bay aboard her TARDIS, healing from at least the physical wounds. The nanogenes had had a lot of work to do, fixing the two little broken bodies. It had almost been like when they'd had to fix her, although her regeneration had taken care of most of it.

"Tally is, or was, at least half engineered, I didn't really understand most of it, but she was basically a 'template'," Rose spat the word out as if it were a curse, "for how to create the perfect fighter. Her memories…she reminded me a lot of your last self when we first met. It was her sending out a strong enough signal to be picked up by the TARDIS that drew me to them."

She went on to explain what had happened on Dracarious. Rose went into more detail than the girls had, filling in the giant gaps the girl's had left him with. All they'd said was, really, that they'd needed help and Rose had saved them and, eventually, adopted them.

"I couldn't just leave them behind," she finished with. "They needed me and…and I needed them." She burrowed further into him. "Still do, and they wanted back here as much as I did."

"How _did_ you get back? Donna said you were in the parallel world that was created around her, but kept going in and out."

"We used the rift in Cardiff," she placed a finger against his lips before he could go into a ramble on how dangerous that was. "The walls between the worlds were weakening, and Jenny's almost as good at the science stuff as you are. Between her, our TARDIS, what I'd learned, and Tally's insights, we managed it safely. As for Donna's world, we skipped around the vortex and went where I was needed. The girls hated it, two months locked inside the ship while I was sorting out what was going on."

"I'd imagine," he knew how much he hated being in one place too long. Even if Tally was in no way related to him, he could see her hating it just as much as Jenny did. Jenny _was_ , and he already knew she liked the running.

"Yeah, well, we finally got to Cardiff and my TARDIS was trying to recharge. We were outside, trying to relax a bit from our latest adventure when Torchwood showed up." Even though it had been Jack, just the name itself was enough to make her shudder. "After a rather confusing reunion with Jack, we spent the time until the Daleks showed up with him and his team." She shoved his shoulder. "I want a full explanation, by the way, from you on why you _left_ our friend behind!"

The Doctor winched. "I was more concerned about you at the time, and…well…he's unsettling. It's taken me this long to be able to spend even a little bit of time around him. Just his presence now makes me want to run away, and the TARDIS feels much the same way."

"Jack told me about that, and it took time for Jenny to stop frowning at him." Rose settled again. Jack had forgiven them both, and the Doctor did have a point. Until she'd seen him again, she hadn't even registered what she'd done to him. She hadn't even been certain if that part of her memory, her bringing Jack back to life, was real or wishful thinking. "The first thing she asked was why he was a fixed point, and then Ianto and Gwen teased him about," she giggled, "being 'bloody Harry Potter'."

He laughed. "How did he like that?"

"He wore the Gryffindor tie the girls found for him for a week until someone took it from him and hid it. That, or I don't really want to know what he came up to using it for." Rose told him, shaking her head.

"Agreed," the Doctor didn't want to think of that either. "What happened Rose?" He'd turned somber again, and this body did that rather well when it wanted to.

She sighed. "It started about a year or so after Norway," she began softly, "I wasn't noticeably aging, Mum commented on it and Dad just wanted to run a few tests. Nothing extreme, he just wanted to make sure I was alright and wasn't going to pop out of existence or something." The irony (was it irony? She wasn't certain and was too tired to care) of that was not lost on her. "He never got to anything beyond blood tests, and I never told him about my chest or head hurting."

Rose tightened her hold on him. She hated these memories as much as he hated the ones from the Time War. He held her closer, if that was even possible at this point. Her mind was locked tightly away from him, nothing leaking over except the sense that she didn't want to talk about this but she had to at the same time.

"We'd just lost Mickey to a dimension jump experiment, or so we thought at the time. His gran had just died and he'd been acting reckless, having to deal with that again." She shook her head. "I suppose it was less destructive than the first time, but it was still just as frightening." She forced herself to relax against the man holding her. "Someone in the science department had gotten hold of my file and decided that despite what the boss said I was more alien than human because of what the test results said."

"Rose," he didn't really need her to continue. He could guess where her story was going. Why hadn't he thought to run tests after the Game Station? Too much else going on at the time he supposed, but he still should have thought about it. She never should have been able to make it off Earth, never mind done what she'd done. Twice now, come to think of it. Maybe if he had, it would have changed things. At the very least she would have been aware, would have been able to keep herself out of their hands.

"Yeah, really don't like needles now." She shivered at the memories this was bringing forward. However, if she could manage it with Jack then she was going to manage it with the Doctor. "I was called to Dad's office one day and I just went not thinking anything of it. I'd just gotten off a really strange call with Mum…I thought she might have been having me on or that the universe was trying to shove me out of it and wanted to talk to him."

"It was a trap," he had to force his anger into the back of his mind. Rose had escaped, she was alright and back where she belonged with him. It was over and no one was going to do anything like it to her ever again. If anyone did, they'd have to face him as the Oncoming Storm and few survived that.

"Yep," she went quiet for a moment. "I think they must have run every test they could think of and more that they made up just for me while I was there." That was part of why she'd been unable to leave the girls behind. She knew what being a lab rat was like and it was a fate she didn't wish on anyone. She'd rescue a Dalek from that fate (she supposed that, technically, she had already done just that). Not that the Dalek had thanked her for doing so, but that was beside the point.

"They had a TARDIS a few rooms from where I was," she continued after a few moments of silence. "I'd felt it before, but put it off as wishful thinking." The smile on her face was small and sad. "She was so weak, and I doubt they even knew what they had but I did once I was close enough." She shrugged a little. "It took time, but she managed to get through to me." Rose had to wipe tears away. Her ship, her _friend_ was dead. Parts of her lived on in this TARDIS, but her soul was gone.

She felt the TARDIS hum in her mind, offering comfort and understanding. It had been a short reunion, but it had been nice not being the only one anymore. She had been happy to take on her sister ship's responsibilities and charges. Rose had been _her_ wolf first after all. It was her doing that allowed them the ability to connect in the other universe.

The Doctor hugged her again, offering what comfort he could. Caan had been correct; a child of time had died. A TARDIS was just as alive as any other sentient being. He'd seen a TARDIS die before, had seen several self-destruct during the war. He didn't know if any of those had done it on their own, but it didn't really matter.

With a shaky breath, Rose continued. "They were moving me and the alarms went off. I don't know if she set them off or if it was an actual alarm. I didn't care at that point; I just rolled off the bed and crawled away while the guards were trying to secure the area. I crawled right into her consul room." She had to stop again. She never _had_ found out what had happened that day. "I passed out, which turned out to be a good thing because I was unconscious when I regenerated."

He winched in sympathy. Regeneration hurt, useful yes but painful. "It was Bad Wolf, wasn't it, that caused it?" And that made it his fault. Rose had only looked into the heart of the TARDIS in order to rescue him.

"Yes," she grinned, "and it wasn't your fault Doctor. I'd do it again if I had to…" she trailed off. "Which I did today, didn't I? That's how we got out of there after my TARDIS exploded," which, honestly, should have killed them all and caused far more damage than it had when her ship had been destroyed. The only thing that had saved them from that fate was Rose absorbing much of the released power and taking on the full mantle of Bad Wolf once again.

"Yes, do you not remember it?"

"No, I do…vaguely." She frowned. "It takes a while, but the memories eventually come back. I sort of remember the Game Station now, and the escape from Torchwood although I don't know how much was from Bad Wolf or the experiments." She shrugged, having had decades to get used to it. "Whatever it was, the TARDIS had enough power to get us to the rift there to recharge. She disguised herself like she saw in my memory, only red because that's what fit in that universe." She paused for a moment. "Actually, I think she just liked that color. She liked it almost as much as she liked the shape, because her chameleon circuit worked just fine she just refused to use it." She cocked her head. "I think it did anyway, otherwise she would have just stayed a stone looking cylinder with a door right?"

The Doctor chuckled. Yes, that sounded like a Type-40 TARDIS. Part of the reason, he'd discovered in the last part of the war when every available TARDIS and other vessel was put into use, that the Type-40s were being decommissioned was that they had 'far too much personality'. Stuffy, his people were. He liked his ship even if they didn't always agree on certain things and her perchance for taking him places he never intended to go verses where he wanted to go. They made it work.

"Right," he agreed with her. "So off to explore that universe then?"

Rose nodded. "Yea, but I let her choose where to go at first. It took months for us both to recover and she sometimes had trouble finding energy to charge her powercells. She wasn't compatible with that universe exactly, something about being from a pan-dimensional planet." She looked at him.

"Yes, that's why I wasn't worried about running into any Time Lords or another me when we first went there. Gallifrey, and thus its people, were pan-dimensional so we technically existed in every dimension at the same time. It's why we could travel to other dimensions but we also never stayed there permanently, oh some did but never a TARDIS. At least, not one that wasn't a Type-83 or higher. All the others were resistant to keeping any permanent charge if they had to refuel in any dimension other than this one." He babbled on in explanation.

Rose leaned further into him and relaxed naturally this time instead of forcing herself to do so. She'd missed his babble.

The Doctor trailed off when he realized that Rose hadn't said anything or responded to any of his questions. He looked down at the now sleeping woman who was cuddled tightly into his side. For the first time since they'd been brought back together, he took the time to take her in.

Over all, she still looked like herself even if she had regenerated. Occasionally that had been known to happen on Gallifrey, but it normally had more to do with having a biological receptacle (like his hand) nearby when regenerating. The biggest difference he could think of was that her hair appeared naturally blonde now, although thinking about it her eyes had more gold in them than they had had before. She was still his Rose though, and that was the important thing.

Carefully, he maneuvered himself from underneath her and stood up. He picked her up, frowning at how light she was. Not that she'd ever been heavy to him, but even so she should be heavier now. The Doctor carried Rose to her room, or rather to where her room should have been.

 _This isn't funny,_ he sent to his ship. He got a sense of amusement and determination in return. _I wasn't going to leave her alone!_ He protested. Rose had never been in his room, _he_ was rarely in his room. She would feel more comfortable in a space she knew. He would be staying right by her side, not wanting to let her out of his sight just yet if ever again.

With a grumble, the door to Rose's room appeared. The Doctor sent a brief, sarcastic _thank you_ to her before entering. He froze for a moment, wondering why the room was different before his brain caught up. The TARDIS must have joined her room from her ship with the one on his.

He really did need to figure out how that had happened. First the girls' room, then the library, and now Rose's room were all slightly different. What else had changed on his ship? _No,_ he corrected himself, _their ship_. He felt the TARDIS hum in smug agreement with him. He had a feeling that the ship knew _exactly_ what was going on.

Pushing those thoughts aside for now, he settled Rose on the bed. He removed her shoes, socks, belt, and emptied her pockets. He hesitated for a moment and then changed her completely into jimjams. He removed his top layer and was going to leave it at that until he noticed a pair of his own jimjams on Rose's desk chair. He took the hint (for once) and changed into them before settling beside Rose on the bed.

He was almost asleep when the door creaked open. He tensed, but relaxed when Jenny wondered in, Tally on her back still mostly asleep. Without acknowledging him in the slightest, she clambered into the bed and cuddled into Rose. Rose shifted away from him to turn over and fling her arm around both girls. He adjusted the blankets and then settled himself behind the young woman who had stolen his hearts the moment she took his hand (he was being a clichéd romantic but he really didn't care). Hesitantly, he mimicked her position with his hand laying over hers on Tally's back. Rose twitched, lacing their fingers together as best she could in this position.

She mumbled something, but he didn't quite catch it. Since all he felt from any of them was contentment and safety, he doubted it was anything bad. They all eventually settled into sleep.

The TARDIS dimmed all the lights on board, settling herself into rest just as her people were doing. They could all worry about other things later. Right now, it was time to heal.

* * *

The Doctor woke up to find intense green eyes staring at him. He returned the stare, wondering what Tally was thinking of. Jenny looked the same as she always had, just smaller and her sharper features softened by youth, with his eyes and (he could say now) Rose's hair. He bet if he pulled out images of his past regenerations he'd find other aspects of himself in Jenny's features.

Tally, however, was a complete mystery. She did, indeed, look like Rose to some degree. The same bone structure, eye shape, skin tone, and all the hallmarks of future potential still soft with childhood. The main differences, aside from her eye color, were her hair and the length of her limbs. She was all knees-and-elbows, already taller than Jenny despite Jenny being older. Her hair matched his for color, and if it matched his in length it would probably be sticking up in every direction it could. It was trying to, defying both gravity and the braid it was still in to poof out at odd angles.

The Doctor would love to know what sort of adoption ceremony Rose had used. It probably had something dealing with blood, considering the likeness between her and the girls. Time Lords, individually, had a wide base of genetic material to choose from because of regeneration. So it was entirely possible for any children he had would have parts of him from any past generations and, in theory, future ones as well.

 _Mum and Jenny are still sleeping._ She said at last, closing her eyes again as she relaxed against him. Somehow she had ended up between him and Rose. Jenny had as well, and the two blondes were cuddled up together still asleep. _Jenny had a bad dream and needed all of us together._

 _And you?_ He was out of practice talking like this, but the girls did it so naturally he couldn't bring himself to shut them out and tell them not to do so. He _liked_ having that presence back in his mind, telling him he was no longer alone. Well, he had the TARDIS but she preferred emotions and static shocks verses words.

 _I had one as well._ She was staring at him. _Are you going to keep us?_

That was a loaded question that meant just as much as it implied. It was also one that needed answered.

 _Yes, all of you and to the best of my ability._ He responded, gingerly wrapping an arm around her much smaller form. It had been a very long time since he'd held someone of this size. He tried to stay away from small children. It brought all the guilt back to the forefront of his mind of all those he'd failed to save at the end of the Time War. Hundreds of thousands of children who would never get to grow up, and it was all his fault.

 _Your way was quick and merciful_ , Tally had sensed where his thoughts were going. She wasn't exactly reading them or his memories as she was seeing them via her own powers. It could get awfully mixed up in her head. _The other fates were worse and slow and without mercy. I've seen children die like that, seen them forced to kill each other for adult amusement. Those dreams never go away._

 _No they don't,_ he agreed. This girl, in her own way, was just as damaged as he was. Like him, Rose had come in and rescued her without a second thought. He smiled widely, mode turning around in an instant. _Shall we wake them up?_

Tally nodded her head, opening her own eyes and returning his smile. In that moment they had irrevocably bonded as parent and child in the most basic way possible. It was in that moment that Tally trusted him and the Doctor fully accepted her as one of his daughters.

With muffled giggles, the two brunettes pounced on the sleeping blondes and began tickling them. Rose and Jenny shrieked in surprise, fumbling to escape the onslaught. Jenny wiggled away and fell off the bed with a thump. She popped back up and went to 'rescue' Rose from the double onslaught.

 _I give!_ Rose mentally cried out, breathless from laughing.

Tally giggled. "That was fun!"

"Fun was it?" Rose smiled wickedly. "I don't think you got tickled enough."

"I don't think Jenny did either," the Doctor added in.

Both girls tumbled off the bed, giggling as they tried to escape. Their parents went after them, capturing one and tickling them until they were breathless with laughter as well. Eventually, all of them ended up back on the bed.

"We're back," Jenny huffed, "where we started."

"I'm hungry," Tally announced, yawning. "I want tea."

"I can manage that," the Doctor untangled himself from Rose. "Shall we?"

She took his offered hand. "Yes, race you to the kitchen?"

The girls dashed out of the room. Rose took the opportunity to kiss the man beside her. He returned the kiss with enthusiasm.

"That's a new way to wake up," she said softly once they separated.

"Yes, yes it is," he agreed whole-heartedly.

"Too domestic for you?" She asked hesitantly.

"I'll get used to it," he replied. "Well, I think I'll get used to it. It's going to be hard though, with the running."

"We're used to running," Rose informed him, "we love the running."

"They're going to wonder off, get into trouble."

"We already do that, proves they're ours."

"Don't suppose they'll listen if they get told to stay in the TARDIS?"

"Hardly, and they can fly a TARDIS so really it'd be a waste of time."

"Sounds about right," he nodded to himself. "Um…I don't suppose their cooking skills are akin to mine in this body are they?" The thought had occurred to him that they'd left two children under the age of ten alone in the kitchen.

Rose shook her head. "More likely Jenny's teasing Tally about there not being pears onboard."

"She likes _pears_?"

"And bananas," Rose told him before he could go off on a rant about pears being evil. "Hate apples though, the both of them." It made buying fruit both easy and difficult. She wondered if the TARDIS would be able to create a room capable of growing bananas, just to feed the three of them.

"But _pears_?" He would have to fix that. How could she like _pears_?

"It could be worse," Rose told him, "she could hate bananas."

"Don't even joke about that!" He told her, looking mildly alarmed.

She smiled at him, wide and amused. Just like that, they'd fallen back into their normal banter and easy way of just _being_ together.

 _Mum! Jenny's threatening to cook something!_

 _Dad! Tally's going to eat all the bananas!_

"Kitchen?" Rose asked him, knowing the girls were doing this on purpose.

"Kitchen," he tightened his grip on her hand. "Why does it feel like there's a story there?"

Grinning, Rose didn't say a word.


	8. Chapter 8

Reunions and Wolf Cubs

Chapter 8

I DO NOT OWN DOCTOR WHO!

* * *

Donna yanked open the TARDIS door and stormed inside. "You're late!" She shouted. "I said a week, not a bloody fortnight!" The only reason she didn't start teasing him about being late because of reuniting with Rose was because she didn't know if the girls would be present or not. She did have some tact.

"Sorry Donna," the Doctor tried to cut off her tirade, "had a bit of trouble."

"Dad nearly got us all arrested," Jenny added in.

"I think you mean the _two_ of you nearly got us all arrested," Tally told them from her perch on one of the coral struts. The TARDIS had indulged her love of heights and now there were various high perches around the ship.

"Time machine!" Donna reminded them, loudly.

"A fortnight isn't bad," Rose appeared carrying a cup of tea. "The first time he took me back to mum's I was a year late."

"So what they'd do to land you in trouble?" Donna asked, slightly calmer now. It was amusing seeing the sheepish look on the Doctor's face. It was also touching to see just how much he cared for the blonde woman now perched in the pilot's chair. He didn't even have to say anything; it was all there in his face.

"Tried to steal a king's banana grove," Tally replied. She was perched precariously on the outcropping, book in hand as she read while being part of the conversation.

"We didn't know! There wasn't a sign or anything." Jenny defended, "It's not like we actually wanted the _whole_ grove."

"Girls, that's enough." Rose said firmly. "Talia, is you assignment finished? Jennifer, what about yours?"

"Almost, just another chapter," Tally replied meekly at hearing her full first name.

"Done," Jenny replied in a similar tone, hating when her full name got used. "Sorry mum."

"All of them or just the parts you like doing?" Rose was no fool; she'd been a student once and had hated most of it. She'd avoided doing school work every chance she got, especially the parts she particularly despised. Even though she couldn't (and wouldn't, not until they were older and decided that was what they wanted) send them to a regular school, she was determined that they knew more of the universe than just what they learned by traveling. Besides, the girls would have been even more bored than she had been if she sent them to a regular primary or secondary school.

That didn't even include all the chaos that would happen if someone discovered they had two hearts, were telepaths, Tally had visions, that Jenny was fully capable of physically defending herself at a level it took most adults well into adult hood to accomplish, or tried to give them aspirin or some other pain medication that could potentially make them ill or outright kill them. Rose also had to worry about the occasional alien threat and what would happen if some enemy of the Doctor's or hers got ahold of them.

It wasn't fun in the least bit, even with an entire multi-dimensional ship to run around in. Would it have been easier to settle in one place until the girls and any other children that came along were older? Yes, but not nearly as much fun. Rose joked that they got all their wonder-lust from the Doctor, but that wasn't true. She had just as much trouble as they did staying in one place for too long.

Jenny sighed, pouting. "No," she admitted. She could see Tally trying to stay still and not draw notice to herself.

"Tally?"

"No, stupid maths," she muttered under her breath.

"Get with it then," Rose told them, "and _you_ need to stop distracting them. They can help you make repairs _after_ the rest of their work is done."

"Yes Rose," the Doctor agreed. He'd been trying to help, and he had. It was just…rumbling around the TARDIS was much more fun than homework. Besides, fixing the TARDIS was an important skill to have. It involved math, science, all sorts of things the girls were learning already. He was just giving them actual experience.

Donna grinned. "Oh, I like you. He's never that meek when I yell at him."

"Oi!" The Doctor replied with indignation. "Rude!"

"You would know space-boy."

"So would you Earth-girl!"

Rose rolled her eyes. Really, the two of them were like siblings! She spotted Jenny and Tally watching, eyes wide as the two supposed adults gave each other a difficult time. She felt the TARDIS humming in amusement.

"I think now would be a good time to retreat," Tally murmured to Jenny, edging towards the nearest doorway.

"Why? This is hilarious." Jenny was watching as Donna and the Doctor exchanged words like it was a tennis match.

Rose laughed quietly to herself. Life was going to be wild and tangled mess of adventure with dangerous bits in-between, but she really wouldn't have it any other way.

 _Where should we go Old Girl?_ She sent the ship, walking around the consul and touching the bits that lit up.

Onwards and forwards, then. The Doctor and Rose Tyler in the TARDIS, as it should be.

"Mum, are we sure Dad and Aunt Donna aren't actual siblings?"

With family and friends along for the ride, of course.

She grinned and pulled the lever that would send them into flight.

THE END


End file.
